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Fortnite leaks tease BRUTE mech suit virus and new battle royale map

By Brittany Roston/

It looks like Epic is gearing up for two major changes to its hit battle royale game Fortnite, including the removal of the universally hated BRUTE suits and the arrival of an entirely new map. Players have been calling for the removal of the BRUTE suit since the game's tenth season arrived, something Epic has been unusually stubborn about. The arrival of an entirely new map may make up for the frustration, however.

Epic recently released Fortnite 10.40, something the data miners have been busy combing through for hints about the game's future. We're only a couple of weeks away from the end of Season 10 and it seems things are looking up for the game's eleventh season: the vaulting of BRUTE and arrival of a new map.

The clue that BRUTE won't stick around comes from data miner @FortTroy on Twitter, an account with a solid history of digging up details on the game before they're released. In a tweet today, FortTory shared an image from the 10.40 update that seems to indicate a virus will corrupt the BRUTE mech suits and eventually cause them to explode:

Perhaps more exciting is a leak from another known data miner Lucas7yoshi, a Twitter account that found a bunch of new Points of Interest (POI) in the game's most recent patch, including ones like 'Holly Hedges,' 'Lazy Lake,' 'Slurpy Swamp,' and 'Weeping Woods.' The files are reportedly labeled as 'The End.'

Of course, it's hard to ignore that fact that many of these names seem like variations of existing POIs on the battle royale island, perhaps hinting at a kind of time twist where players are shuttled off to a different dimension. Snobby Shores may be called Sunny Shores in this alternate world, for example, with things like Lazy Lake replacing Lazy Lagoon and Frenzy Farm replacing Fatal Fields. It's hard to say at this point, however.

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